Turkish Communist Leader on Middle East Politics After the Fall of Assad in Syria
The Socialist Program with Brian Becker
The Socialist Program
4.7 • 587 Ratings
🗓️ 25 January 2025
⏱️ 50 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Brian Becker and Kemal Okuyan -- the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey (TKP) -- discuss Turkey's role in Syria, Turkish President Erdogan's aspirations for a neo-Ottoman era, and the dynamics of a changing Middle East region.
Here is a link to the TKP statement mentioned in this show, on the fall of the Assad government in Syria: https://www.tkp.org.tr/en/agenda/tkp-cc-statement-following-the-success-of-the-imperialist-plan-for-disintegration-of-syria-we-will-win-our-country-not-lose-it/
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | 15 months after the October 7th uprising by the Palestinian people from Gaza, the resistance forces, |
| 0:10.5 | 15 months after the genocide perpetrated by the Israeli military with U.S. support against the people of Gaza, |
| 0:17.8 | 15 months after the Israeli war against the people of Lebanon, 15 months after the Israeli war |
| 0:21.3 | against the people of Lebanon and Yemen. |
| 0:24.6 | Shortly after the fall of the Syrian government, |
| 0:29.1 | today we talk with a leader of the Turkish Communist Party |
| 0:33.3 | about their view about the new Middle East. We need a new system. |
| 0:39.5 | We need a new society. |
| 0:41.4 | We need to demand that which may have sounded impossible |
| 0:44.4 | even a few weeks ago, |
| 0:46.2 | but is not only realizable, |
| 0:48.4 | but an imperative necessity. |
| 0:50.2 | The Welcome to the Socialist Program. I'm your host, Brian Becker. |
| 1:16.6 | Today we're talking with Kamal Okion. He is the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Turkey, TKP. |
| 1:25.6 | Kamal, welcome back. Hello, Brian. How are you? I am very well, and I want to thank you |
| 1:31.5 | for joining us. We're very eager. I know people in the United States, people on the left, |
| 1:36.3 | people in the labor movement, not just in the United States, but around the world, want to know |
| 1:41.1 | how the Turkish left, and in particular the Turkish Communist Party, |
| 1:44.8 | is viewing these momentous developments in the Middle East, which are not only reshaping the Middle |
| 1:52.2 | East, but really reshaping in some ways global politics. It's an unfinished story, obviously, |
| 1:58.2 | but you've done major assessments and analysis on behalf of the Turkish |
| 2:04.2 | Communist Party, especially after the fall of the Assad government in Syria. And of course, |
... |
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